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^^^KADOTAFIG 

By W. SAM CLARK 



M 




The Kadota Fig 



The Kadota Fig 



A Treatise on its Origin, 
Planting and Care 

By 

W. SAM CLARK 

Sultana, Cal. 



PRICE ONE DOLLAR, POSTPAID 



Published hy 

THE FIG AND OLIVE JOURNAL 

311 East Fourth St.. Los Angeles, Cal. 




W. Sam Clark 



M. 18 1920 ©~!.A570406 



° / 



CONTENTS 

Frontispiece, Stephen H. Taft, Discoverer of the Kadota Fig. 

The Kadota Fig 1 

Discovery and Introduction of the Kadota 3 

Planting 5 

Irrigation 5 

Pruning 7 

Picking 13 

Packing 1 4 

Eastern Shipping 1 5 

Canning 17 

Drying 1 9 

Returns per Acre 22 

Prospects of the Kadota Fig 24 

Kadota May be Caprified 25 

Comparison with Foreign Figs 26 

Basket Used for Picking (Illustration) 28 

Use of Missions on Borders 29 

The Smyrna 30 

The Adriatic 31 

Standard Shipping Box (Illustration) 32 

Description of Kadota Fruit 33 

Description of Tree and Its Habits 35 

How to Plant 36 

Clark Method of Laying Off Tract for Planting 37 

Frozen Nursery Stock 39 

Fig Pointers in General 41 

A Canner's Opinion of the Kadota 42 

The Fig Tree, by J. C. Forkner 43 




Froiili-spi 



Stephen H. Taft, Di.seoverer of the Kuiluta Fig 



The Kadota Fig 

In presenting this little book on the Kadota Fig to my friends and 
patrons, I do so with a full recognition that so swiftly are we advancing in all 
branches of horticulture and disposition of our products, that a writer on the 
subject may produce something that is hopelessly antiquated almost before it 
leaves the press. 

It is only the entire absence of anything printed regarding this horticul- 
tural marvel, developed in late years, that prompts me to put out this regard- 
ing the Kadota Fig. 

In going back into the history of human progress, I cannot help but be 
impressed with the equilibrium or co-advancement of human and horticultural 
achievements. Each stage of human advance witnessed a corresponding ad- 
vance in the fruits and grains of that age. 

The personality of the human race is reflected in the products of the 
earth, directly or indirectly as a result of their mental attainments. From 
earliest humanity to the present, from the Tropics to the Arctics, flora and 
fauna are co-existent and make co-advancement. 

Is it imaginary on my part to attribute to the fig, the fruit nearest and 
dearest to mankind since the beginning of time, a kindred nature, reflecting 
the color and life habit of the race which produced it? Can we not see, 
away back in the haze and dimness of antiquity, a sympathetic likeness be- 
tween the earliest man, imperfect and erring, and the fig of that time, a wild, 
fierce thing, scarcely recognizable at present as the forebear of the joyous 
fruits we now produce? 

Is not the Smyrna fig, a product of Oriental advancement, an exact re- 
production of the people who propagated it? Are they not secretive and 
evasive, utterly depraved on one side of their nature, and human perfection and 
kindness on the other? Fair of skin, an object of beauty are their females 
in youth, and fading in early age, yet a race existing for centuries regardless 
of vicissitudes? Is not the Smyrna fig an exact counterpart of their progress 
and their lives? A thing of beauty and a joy unsurpassed is the ripened 
perfect fruit, yet secretive and a useless, deplorable thing, unless by the im- 
planting of an outside influence in the form of the wasp, which brings per- 
fection to the fruit, only as does the winged spirit of Christianity, carrying the 
pollen of kindness, an invisible leaven, makes more perfect the nature of the 
race who produced this fruit? Long-lived and tenacious of existence, neither 
is fit for our association unless by the infusion of outside elements invisible, al- 
most, but effective. Are not the people and this fruit twin products of their 
time and age? 

Is not the Adriatic fig also a reflection of the peoples who associate their 
existence with the fig bearing the name of the region whence they spring? 
A hardy, mountain people, who have struggled and lived for ages in adver- 
sity, and who maintain an existence by sheer tenacity of spirit, yet whose im- 
perfect human productions will liken achievements to this fig which so closely 



THE KADOTA FIG 



resembles them in every way. Does not this fig thrive in adversity, regard- 
less of outside assistance or abuse, and will it not produce an abundance of 
fruit, poor and imperfect to be sure, not true at heart in all cases, yet a splen- 
did product is obtained when transplanted to proper soil, and under correct 
conditions, and yielding readily to the influences of the wasp, which we may 
liken unto the pollen of civilization, which that race of people so hungrily 
long for and respond to when given? 

Are the people of that land and this fruit of those people not twins, fair of 
face and color, typical in life and spirit? Each imperfect, yet swiftly re- 
sponding to betterment when correctly applied? It strikes me so. 

Was it not the Moor, strong and sturdy, dark of skin and warm of heart, 
that transplanted from the shores of Tripoli to the hills of ancient Spain, a 
dark-skinned fig, each a conqueror in its own way, winning the land and 
the love of the people? 

In after centuries, was it not the dark-skinned Padres of old Spain whose 
indomitable spirit and loving kindly ways blazed the Christian trails into 
our western lands, bringing comfort and spiritual cheer, and implanting with 
their blessings this same old fig in the sun-kissed lands of California? Does 
not this fig image an exact reproduction of these patient and blessed men 
who gave this fig and their lives to us? Does it not furnish physical shade 
and protection, temporal food and spiritual inspiration and lasting blessings? 
Are its fruits not sweet and pure, dark in color, yet never failing in time and 
season? Are not these fruits like the silent Padres of old, ever welcome in 
humblest home, to lordly mansion, bringing peace and consolation to us all? 
Are they not almost one} 

Now comes the Kadota, a product of our land and time. Almost with 
meteoric speed and splendor, from out our western skies comes this fair-faced 
visitor, like gracious maiden through parted curtains, a vision of beauty and 
a joy. 

Springing from the soils of our thrice blessed land comes the product of 
cur century. Its golden fruit, snuggling in velvet foliage of deep dark green, 
comes like the vision through parted portieres. With a speed and swiftness, 
like our lives and actions, comes this child of our dreams. How very like 
our people is this tree and its fruit. Impatient of all delay it brushes aside 
all granted prerogatives of its cousins of old; from babyhood it yields its 
products with an assurance and a certainty of the precocious child that it is. 

Its swiftness and marvels of achievement exactly mirror our age and time; 
its generosity and fair play image the men of our western empire, while its 
sweetness and tenderness are the spirit of our women, swaying to every im- 
pulse for betterment and improvement, yet always true and steadfast wherever 
placed by fortune or conditions. 

It meets our every demand for speed and certainty. In our race against 
time we never lose sight of fair play and justice. A perfect product for a 
given stipend is motto alike for man and fig, and in its travels, imprisoned in 
walls of glass, it carries visions of golden sunrise fanned by gentle zephyrs, 
laden with scent of blooming fields and gardens. 

Or, wrapped in waxen paper, the freshly gathered fruit of golden radi- 
ance we send like graceful carrier pigeon, bearing a message to our Eastern 
cities, from these lands of music and pleasure, of sunshine and plenty, beside 
our Sunset Sea. 



% 



THE KADOTA FIG 



This fig, true product of our land and spirit of our people, brings us 
fame and honor, while radiating pure joy and pleasure. 

Vibrating from its very heart are the impulses of the Californian; scat- 
tering with prodigality and western abandonment its harvest of luscious fruits 
and fulfilled promises. 

Discovery 

The honor and credit for the discovery of the remarkable fig now known 
as the Kadota belongs exclusively to that wise old horticulturist, the late 
Stephen H. Taft, of Sawtelle, a member of the Centenary Club of Southern 
California. 

When nearing the brave old age of five score years he crossed over the 
funset sea, leaving behind him a horticultural triumph whose magnitude and 
value were but faintly appreciated even by himself. 

As the planted acres of this fig are leaping from hundreds into thousands, 
and demand outstrips all possible production even now, only then does the 
true worth of this fig appear and the magnitude of the discovery become ap- 
parent to those interested in this branch of horticulture. 

The original tree of this variety, then a stranger, discovered and named 
by Mr. Taft and afterward distributed, first appeared in an orchard grown 
by Mr. Cyrus Way of Whittier, from cuttings furnished by Mr. Iheo. 
Hockett, from his orchard of Dottaios, which in turn was an orchard grown 
from cuttings imported from Europe in 1887, by Mr. R. Thompson of Or- 
ange County, California. 

In the orchard grown by Mr. Way was one only tree of most remarkable 
vigor, growth, and early production, and in every way superior to the bal- 
ance of the orchard surrounding it. The discriminating judgment of Mr. 
Taft immediately recognized in this stranger the very qualities and virtues so 
long sought by all progressive fig growers the world over. 

Whether it be an off-shoot, a sport, or a freak of nature, matters but 
little to us now, and its remarkable achievements in the few short years of its 
existence has astounded the fig growers of central California, and it now stands 
at the very head of all figs of its class, and has indeed created a branch of 
the fig industry all its own. 

Introduction 

It is perhaps true that no fruit ever grown has so surely and so swiftly 
leaped into fame and found a place for itself in the thoughts and the acres 
of the progressive and discriminating orchardists of California. 

The advent of this fig has revolutionized the planting and pruning of fig 
orchards. It has created a new industry — the canning of fresh figs as other 
fruits are canned. It has already caused the installation of canning estab- 
lishments in several of our interior cities, and more are in the formative stage. 
Coast cities had first canned our crops. It has created a new department of 
labor — the skilled picking of fresh figs. 

This fig has upset all the established rules for irrigation of fig orchards. 
It has created a confidence in the fig industry not previously enjoyed by the 



THE KADOTA FIG 



older varieties, because of its early bearing, tremendous tonnage, certainty of 
crops, and unprecedented demand for its products and unparalleled cash re- 
turns enjoyed by the planters who grow this variety, occasioned by the many 
uses to which this fruit is now put. 

All this and more has been achieved by this fig in the three short years 
since we had the honor and the pleasure of introducing it to the fig growers 
of California, assembled in Fresno, January, 1917, on the occasion of the 
first Fig Growers' Institute held at that time. Relatively but little was 
known before that date regarding this fig, its uses and virtues, and the 
publicity given it on that occasion was all that was needed to cause it to leap 
into the limelight and occupy the unique position it now holds. 

Distribution 

After Mr. Taft had given his new fig a rigid tryout in its many uses, he 
began the propagating and distribution of this variety, and in 1913 I secured 
from him the rootings which constitute my original orchard, now six years of 
age. He was at that time a man somewhere in the nineties. His age and 
limited acreage made it slow and difficult for him to distribute very widely 
his discovery. 

I had had considerable correspondence with him and was deeply im- 
pressed by his enthusiasm, foresight, and absolute honesty, and fully appre- 
ciated the loss to the industry occasioned by his decease, which left no one 
in particular to champion the cause of his fig. So in a timid and halting man- 
ner I attempted to carry on the work he was forced to drop. I soon discov- 
ered that others were impressed very favorably with this fig and my first nur- 
sery proved all too small to meet the growing demand, and from my first ven- 
ture to the present time we have never been able to supply even 50 per cent, of 
the rootings desired by intending planters, and while each year I increase my 
nursery to the greatest possible extent I still fall far short of demands. 1 he 
saddest feature of this shortage of genuine stock lies in the opportunity it gives 
to the distribution of spurious stock, secured from orchards of the old "White 
Endich," "California White" and "White Pacific," all collectively sold as 
Kadota or Little Kadotas. These older varieties have long been known in 
California and classed as unprofitable figs. But in general appearance they 
so closely resemble the genuine Kadota that unwittingly planters are accepting 
this stuff, and only when too late will they discover their error, and two re- 
sults are absolutely certain. 

First, they will grow a smaller tree and a smaller, poorer fruit; and, 
secondly, the name and reputation of Kadota is sure to suffer as these planters 
in perfect faith and honesty will condemn this fig, naturally thinking they are 
growing the genuine, which in their orchards is falling far short of the many 
virtues claimed for the genuine, and really enjoyed by those fortunate enough 
to have secured true stock. So with all the emphasis at my command I warn 
all planters to be absolutely sure thev secure rootings of direct lineage to that 
one onl^ tree, from which Stephen H. Taft named and secured his original 
cuttings. There was no such a fig as the Kadota previous to that time, how- 
ever much nurserymen claim to the contrary. 

In my immediate vicinity there is an orchard of sixteen acres, one-half of 
which is Endich, the other half Kadota, and any one may stand half a mile 



THE KADOTA FIG 



away and instantly see the difference and recognize the very row of trees 
where the two varieties meet. A nursery is now growing from cuttings taken 
from that orchard, and the Japanese who will sell the rootings will sell 
"Kadotas" next planting season. He neither knows of nor cares anything for 
the Taft variety, but the demand will sell his "50-50" stock and many oi- 
chardists may hereafter have years of regrets. 

So few are the years since the advent of this fig, and so few are the 
genuine nurseries, that any planter may easily prove the origin of his root- 
ings. A law protects a planter in this state against the purchase of stock 
afterwards proving to be not true to name. But that joke causes a nursery- 
man, within seven years, to refund to the planter the purchase price of his 
rootings. Wouldn't that make you smile? After seven years you find you 
were buncoed, and then get back the 25 cents per tree you perhaps paid for 
the false rooting! 

Planting, Cultivating and Irrigation — Soils 

Kadota figs are now growing in all soils and beside every other variety 
of fig grown in California, and while some soils are most assuredly superior 
to others for the production of figs, this fig has demonstrated that nothing 
special in soils or treatment is required to make it out-grow and out-bear in 
tonnage any other fig with which it may associate. 

All figs should avoid pure sandy soil; select something heavier and use 
sandy soils for something else. My home orchard is planted in heavy adobe 
and dry-bog. Loams are, in my judgment, most superior for growing figs, and 
soils under-laid with hard-pan which m.ay be blasted may, in the long run, prove 
still better than loams. The breaking up of hard-pan liberates the elements 
so essential for the production of a superior quality of fruit. 

Lime is pre-eminently a requisite for heavy, meaty, rich figs, and all 
hard-pans are heavily impregnated with lime, and more or less so with potash, 
sulphur and iron, all of which go to make a soil favorable for fig production. 
A deficiency of lime in any soil will cause a fruit to be produced that dries 
into a hollow shell of seeds and little meat. We have all seen that kind of 
dried fruit. 

Air and water will cause hard-pan to disintegrate, thus liberating these 
above named values. The tree itself may flourish in any soil deficient in lime, 
potash, sulphur and iron, yet the product of the tree will be poor. Again, 
hard-pan land when blasted conserves moisture below the pan, as summer 
heat cannot evaporate the moistures invariably found beneath, and the tree 
will eventually push its roots downward and laterally, thus securing required 
moisture at all seasons. 

Planting 

Regardless of the price of powder, blasting of locations for fig tree plant- 
ing should invariably be practiced. First, a deeper, bigger, better hole is 
thus secured ; filling the hole with aerated soil from the surface insures strong, 
vigorous growth for three years on the part of the newly planted tree. Second- 
ly, the hole acts as a reservoir for the irrigation or rain which should follow 
the planting, and the cracks caused by the blast radiating laterally in all di- 



THE KADOTA FIG 



rections permits roots a freedom of spread not enjoyed by a tree planted in a 
dug hole, whose sides are by pressure of the spade tightly sealed agamst the 
tiny rootlets. Blasted holes should invariably be filled and settled with water 
before tree is planted. 

As fig rootings are the most delicate of all the trees planted in California, 
the greatest care possible should be exercised in their handling. From the 
nursery to the tree hole all speed and care should be employed. The rootings 
should never even for sixty seconds be exposed to hot air or wind. Spotted 
fig orchards everywhere emphasize this caution and advertise the fact that 
some one either in ignorance or carelessness, or both, between the nursery dig- 
ging and the planting failed to heed these well known warnings. So, learn 
your nurseryman's habits before you secure your stock of rootings. A fig tree 
that has been well handled and well planted is worth one dollar more than cost, 
the moment the roots are covered. A new fig orchard one year old and 1 00 
per cent, stand should be worth $100.00 per acre more than the land was one 
year before. So use all care and caution in handling your rootings. 

Plant your rootings 4 inches deeper than they grow in the nursery, settle 
the dirt with water about the roots, and if you are planting Kadotas, then cut 
away all the tree 1 or 12 inches above the ground. 

First, this cutting away balances the top with the lacerated and reduced 
root system occasioned by the removal of the rooting from the nursery bed. 

Second, a Kadota is a fruit which derives its greatest profit by selling as 
fresh figs, and must be picked from the tree, and a tall tree is a very expensive 
tree to pick, and ladders should be as low as possible to increase profit in 
handling the fruit. 

Hence, crown your Kadota at or near the ground, induce a wide spread- 
ing tree by top pruning and shade ground and trunk from frost and sun, and 
double the tonnage of your fruit over any and all fig trees pruned by the old 
obsolete methods so much in vogue in California. Forget the tillage under 
your tree. Don't attempt to plow either deeply in a fig orchard or near to 
the tree. The roots that make the tree are deep and out of reach of the 
plow. The fruit rootlets are almost invisible, delicate and near the surface. 
Plowing over 6 inches deep will probably destroy or reduce your crop. Deep 
plowing may perhaps be practiced if from the first year planted it is always 
done and roots always kept deeply down. 

The grass under your tree may be removed with a hoe. You grow an 
orchard for profit, not to satisfy a vanity unfortunately found in many growers 
regarding the appearance of their orchards. 

Irrigation 

If you are growing a Kadota orchard, keep in mind these facts: A Kadota 
orchard in full bearing must mature a crop AYl months each season, and a 
tonnage practically three times that of any other fig orchard. Hence your 
soil must either possess or be given more water than the soil of another orchard 
to assist the tree in fulfilling her obligations. * 

Another thing: Remember, you cannot in any manner, shape or form in- 
jure the tree or the fruit with an excess of water at any stage of the fruiting 
season. So apply the water before and between crops, increase the growth 



THE KADOTA FIG 



of your tree, and ever]) inch of new growth on everp limb brings a new leaf, 
and everp leaf on new wood harbors a fig which will ripen that season; so 
force the size and growth of ])our trees whenever possible. 

All soils do not require the irrigation I give to my land, and each planter 
can use judgment according to his conditions. In the growmg season the 
terminal bud should be kept unfolding into a new leaf. When that opera- 
tion ceases, water is needed. 

In my orchard of adobe land I irrigate late m April, or twice m May, and 
twice in July after the June crop is gathered, and agam between crops m 
August and September if time permits. I force the growth and tonnage. 

Pruning 

By cutting back a newly planted fig tree to 1 or 12 inches from the 
ground you induce a low dense growth near the ground that, as the tree ages 
permits of an easy and cheap method of gathering the fruit as above stated, and 
you also cause the trunk or body of the tree to be at all times protected from 
the elements, both winter and summer, and you also provide a dense shade 
conserving the moisture inherently in the soil or added by irrigation All varie- 
ties of figs are improved by this method of pruning, and invariably a heavier 
tonnage of fruit is thus secured. 

For gathering figs ripened on the tree and fallen, the extremely low 
branches may be removed to permit the small boy to rustle about under the 
branches But always bear in mind that our improving system of growmg 
orchards is getting us each year farther away from the old California system 
of driving a six-horse team under the branches of our trees, and we are also 
learning that intensive cultivation immediately under a fig tree is not essential 
to growth or fruit. 

The best bearing old fig tree we know anything of is one in door-yard, 
fence corner or on ditch bank, where horse, teams or tractors never go. 

The time is rapidly coming when all varieties of figs desired for drying 
will be picked fresh from the tree, dehydrated, and otherwise handled in a 
manner to cause California dried figs to become famed the world over. 1 hat 
desired end will not be accomplished with our present methods. In connection 
with that future prospect the pruning of all varieties of figs must be practiced 
along the lines now accepted as the correct method for pruning the Kadola. 
After planting cut tree back to 1 or 12 inches. 

The second season shorten all growth to 16 or 18 inches and cut center 
out. Third season shorten all growths to 1 2 or 18 inches. 

The fourth season the growth of many branches should be cut back to 
16 or 18 inches, as in previous seasons, with this difference: You are now 
expecting to gather a considerable tonnage of fruit, and the branches which 
have not made a growth to exceed 20 or 22 inches should not be disturbed 
this season but should be permitted to remain to give you your June crop, 
and may be shortened next season to proper length, and the greater growths 
on the tree should all be cut away to within 1 6 or 18 inches of their union 
with parent branch. In branching they will give you crops later in the season. 
In the season to follow, as the tree increases in size and age, leave all 
short growths for June fruit, and, unless you can cut away at least 6 inches 
and retain required length of stub, do not cut. Small slender growths may 



THE KADOTA FIG 




I pper \ ie%v — KskIoCi Fik. 1<> iiioiitliK :ilt»T iiIsiiiUiik, correctly itriiiied. 
l-ower Vie^v — Ksiflota KiK. -- iimiitlis after plniitiiiK; 4 ft. lath iiiilicntes spread 
of hrauelies, oorreotly pruned. 



THE KADOTA FIG 



be retained as fruit producers and shortened or removed another season, for 
you will always have plenty of cutting to do on sturdy growths. 

Always keep the center of your tree open. The bigger the tree the 
greater the opening should be. A crop will ripen in the center of an open 
tree, and none to mention in a jungle. 

Keep your trees low. Remove all upper branches that are out of easy 
reach of a picker standing on a 4-foot ladder, or within reach of picker stand- 
ing in the center of your tree. 

Remove branches that grow into the ground. Cause your tree by pruning 
to have its greatest circumference at a point within reach of a picker of 



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• \ ?.» . -•, \t Iji (i^a-v 




Ksulota FiK — Third itriiiiiiiK, :i4 iitoiitlis witvv planting. The "hush" effect, s« 
essential for eeoiioiii.v in Katht'i-ins fresh fruit, is being nhtained hy cor- 
rect pruning'. 

average height standing on the ground; curving inward and downward to- 
ward the trunk, that lower branches may not grow to such an extent as to im- 
pede picking when a ladder is used, and upper branches must be reached. 

Study your tree; do not hesitate to remove a big branch to mduce new 
growths to take its place when it has outgrown its usefulness, and aK'ays 
keep your trees low. Reducing height of tree eliminates the use of ladders to 
a great degree and reduces cost of rathering fresh fruit, be it Smyrna, Mis- 
cicn or Kadota. 

Summer pruning by pinching off terminal bud is not good practice; a cluster 
of limbs will spring out where the bud is pinched; cut away 6 or 8 inches or 
more, and Imbs will come distributed along, back on the parent stock. 



10 



THE KADOTA FIG 




Thi.s ssiiiie tree, <S iiioiitliN :ifter priiiiiiiK- One may resulily see tlie Hilvsintages 
obtaiued by eorreet priiiiiuK', ax eontrasited witb my olcier trees. 

The old obsolete pruning of fig trees is merely a follow-up of pruning sys- 
tems employed in New England and other sections, where a fruiting tree was 
not a tree unless it was pruned up high enough to drive a horse and tall 
harness-hames under the lowest branches and not knock the apples off. 

A fig orchard should not be an orchard at all in the acceptance of the 
term. It should be a "Fig Garden" and the trees should be "bushes," as they 
are on the Island of Capri. 

This past summer several of my 6'/2 year old figs measured 100 feet cir- 
cumference of the branches. The bearing surface was immense. Others were 
75 to 90 feet. 

Closer planting, severe pruning and smaller bushes, and more tonnage per 
acre, will be the practices in the near future of all varieties of figs. 

The pruning of a Kadota orchard is the most essential as well as most 
delicate task we have. The limb of a Kadota tree produces fruit for 1 8 
months, and thereafter is a loafer in the tree, except at the extreme tips, or 
becomes the medium for the production of other limbs that will bear fruit. 

Consequently I practice the removal or shortening of all limbs past the 
producing age. Cut a limb 1 8 inches from its junction with its parent and it 
in turn becomes a parent for 3 or 5 newer limbs, all new wood and conse- 
quently producers of fruit the season following pruning. They get to work 
right norv. They don't wait a year and then get busy. 



THE KADOTA FIG 



11 



Kadotas produce an abundance of seasonal growth of 3 to 7 feet in 
length. If not cut back next pruning season your trees will soon be full oi 
long fishing poles and while your June crop will be reduced by shortening 
back these long growths to I 6 or 18 inches, the multitude of newer wood 
resulting from the pruning vastly over-pays the losses occasioned by cutting, 
and your tree is shaped better and a greater percentage of your fruit is 
secured without the use of ladders. 

In my orchard I found it cost 43 per cent more to gather a given tonnage 
of fruit by using ladders than the same tonnage gathered by standing on the 
ground. 

Furthermore, a Kadota tree should be kept pruned out in the center to 
permit sun and air to enter, that a crop may be gathered from, the inside 
circumference of the tree as well as the outside circumference. 

Conduct your pruning along these lines and increase your tonnage very 
considerably. 

Everyone has observed fig trees grown dense in the center, tall slender 
limbs pushing up to the light and air at the extreme top of the tree and fruit- 
ing only at that point, entirely out of reach of a picker. 

Remember, a fig tree produces only on the tip ends, and on new wood, 
and axiomatically your tonnage will increase with increasing new tips and 
quantity of new wood, and the greater the outside diameter of your tree the 
greater the tonnage you will gather. Observe photos herewith presented 
showing trees six years of age measuring over 1 00 feet in outside circumfer- 
ence of the branches. 




Kn4l<»t:i Fis" tree Tiy^ years sifter itliintiu^. Observe tlie Ioiik, sleuiler. nou- 
hesiriiiK' limbs in this tree. I'u^vise pruning; in first and seeoud years per- 
mitted tliis condition. 



12 



THE KADOTA FIG 



Go and measure some I 5-year-old Smyrnas or Missions and find an equal 
measurement and then observe methods of pruning practiced in the past, and 
you will readily see where the crowning of any fig tree three feet or so from 
the ground has caused the owner yearly losses which could and should have 
been prevented. No tall tree can possibly have the bearing surface of one 
crowned near the ground. 









Same 5Vi year oltl tree, after iiriiuing,'. Observe the ieiiKtIi »f ItruKh reiiioved; 
«aste«l tri'e euerjsy rtiie to iiiiperfeot early iiriininja;. 

Gathering, Packing and Shipping 

When a Kadota fig orchard reaches a bearmg age, it produces crops for 
4!/2 months each season. The first crop begms to ripen on or before June 18 
with us, and one season ripened the first week in June. 

The fruit should be gathered while firm, yet fully matured and full 
sugared. If it is good to eat off the tree it is ready for shipment. Otherwise 
don't pick it, as it never puts on any sugar after being picked. 

The June crop is not as good for Eastern shipment as ^:ubsequent crops, 
as it is more watery. 

After experimenting for four seaeons on a basket to pick with we decided 
upon a light galvanized oblong receptacle weighing 3 pounds, and one that 
will lat for many years. The basket is 3'/4 inches deep, 14 inches wide 
and 1 8 inches long, with Y4 inch iron bale with hook attached to center of 
bale, to hook on limb of tree or on ladder. Each picker carries two baskets 
into the orchard and when full uses a yoke to carry to packing shed. Eacti 
basket when full contains I 8 to 20 pounds net. 



THE KADOTA FIG 



13 



We prefer 3-legged ladders, not to exceed 4 feet in height, for picking. 

With experience will come care in the handling of the fruit. We break 
the fig from the limb, by bending it in the opposite way from which it grows. 
Cotton gloves are used after two or three days, as the milk of the stem wiil 
cut the fingers. Keep gloves well washed. Scour baskets every night. 

Never pinch or squeeze a fig but judge by color what to gather. Handle 
with extreme care. Pick but one fig at a time and place carefully in the 
basket. 

Pick each tree every other day or every third day and gather all ripened 
fruit every picking and keep trees clean. 



Picking 

In my June and August crops this season (1919) my pickers averaged 
around 400 pounds daily to each man, yet 700 pounds were often gathered 
by one picker. My trees are 6 years past in age, and by heavy pruning for 
several seasons I have gotten them m fair shape for gathering, and have in 
a measure overcome the original mistake of high pruning of tree when first 
planted. 

When my pickers come to the packing shed with a load of fruit, they 
weigh up their baskets, chalk on the chart their weight of fruit, and each night 
the tonnage gathered is reckoned up and each picker credited with his indi- 
vidual tonnage, and as I paid pickers by the hour and also a bonus of '/4 cent 




Another .'iVa yeJir old Iva«lot:i, iio< iiroperly priineil first three .vears. Take 
note of the wasted energy in the iiriinin^ :iiid poor shape of tree still. 



14 



THE KADOTA FIG 




Kailota Fiffs. Planted Mareli. 1013. lMioto;4i:i|>lie*l Deo. 4, 1»17 

per pound for all he picked, everything worked smoothly and careless pickers 
were weeded out and best men retained. 



Packing 

Experience is required to pack successfully for Eastern shipments in re- 
frigerator cars with grapes or other fresh fruits. 

Place figs in airp part of car far removed from the ice. They mold 
badly if on or against ice. Circulating air is preserving medium for fresh 
figs in transit. 

In packing-shed girls should use care in handling figs. Once picked up, 
each fig should be placed immediately in box, either for local cannery or 
more select fruit for the Eastern shipments. 

The standard box view shown on page 32 is used for one layer fruit of 
larger sizes. It contains 8 to 1 pounds net, according to size of figs used. 
A layer of waxed paper is placed under and over the fruit. Five of these 
boxes are covered and crated together when ready for refrigerator car. 

The less classy figs of every other size are placed in deeper boxes without 
regard, and delivered to your canner, by express or by auto truck with auxiliary 
springs attached to fake bottom of truck to minimize the jar and fret in 
transportation. This false bottom is light and removable from truck and is 
a wonder in saving the fruit. The canners separate sizes according to their 
requirements. All soft and over-ripe figs are classed as seconds and are 
packed for cannery in separate lug boxes and labeled as such and bring about 
one-half the price of the solid figs. The girls become expert in the 
selection of the three grades of figs, and if they are careless they should be 



THE KADOTA FIG 



15 




K.adota Fig, 4% years after iilauting- 



replaced by others who use their heads all the time. The fruit is too valuable 
and the growing industry too great to be injured in any manner by heedless 
pickers and packers. 

Carefully dry all figs too ripe for the canners. 



Eastern Shipping 

In shipping our figs to Eastern markets, we usually place from one to five 
packages of 5 boxes each in the squeeze or brace of the car, where air 
circulates freely and far removed from the ice. If the car is in motion all the 
time the figs will stand 1 2 or 14 days shipment and have sold for fancy prices 
I 7 days after being picked. Ten days is standard time to average Eastern 
destination. During the war the congested railroad traffic caused the fruit 
trains to stand still at times and the moisture-laden air of the cars caused the 
figs to mold. Permit me to quote Prof. I. J. Condit, late horticultural ex- 
pert of the University of California, now on the J. C. Forkner Fig Garden 
staff at Fresno. He placed my figs in refrigeration last season in tempera- 
tures of varying degrees up to the freezing point, and if my memory serves 
me right he kept the figs not to exceed 7 days without molding at the most 
favorable degree and others a lesser time. Had he possessed a refrigerator 
containing a fan and circulated the air, I believe he could have kept the fruit 
much longer. Probably I or 15 or 20 days even. 



16 



THE KADOTA FIG 



My figs have been transported to Eastern Canada, as well as to all East- 
ern seaboard cities, and have sold for prices ranging from 20 cents to 50 
cents per pound, and were transported in ordinary iced cars, consuming 1 to 
1 6 days in transit. Hence my deduction regarding circulation of air. 

New York, Boston and Pittsburg in the East, and St. Louis in the West, 
have proven my best markets, while Chicago has invariably been my poorest. 

I am informed that our figs are retailed at 1 and 1 5 cents each and are 
eaten out of hand by the consumer in these Eastern markets, and the average 
person gets but a couple of figs fresh per season. The market is abso- 
lutely undeveloped and entirely unlimited, and we in California will never 
be able to supply the Eastern demand for our fresh article, even when the 
welcome day arrives when we Kadota growers can load a full car of figs, 
after effecting an organization of Kadota fig growers and shippers, and launch 
a campaign of education in the East and forward our own fruit to our own 
selling agency and distributor. After we have done these things, I doubt if 
there be acres of land in California capable of bearing sufficient figs to pro- 
duce a supply that will satisfy local canners and an educated consuming 
public in the East. The prices will always be good and dem.and increasing 
and prospects positively startling. 

With our fresh fig industry only just born, yet so great is the demand by 
the consuming public, both East and West, for fresh fig products, that we can- 
not now and perhaps not for 25 years to come can we plant fast enough nor 




KiKlota KiK'. -fA: yeiirN lifter plniiliim' 



THE KADOTA FIG 



17 



acres enough to cause supply and demand to balance in that one branch alone; 
with only three short years to our credit we have now two San Francisco can- 
ners buying our fruit, one in San Jose, one just established in the Forkner Fig 
Gardens, Fresno, to handle Kadotas, one exclusively for Kadotas at Reedley, 
one San Francisco firm located a one-unit cannery this season in a Kadota 
orchard at Porterville, one at Armona, which cannery alone is asking for ten 
times the Kadota tonnage now in existence, and one projected for Dinuba, 
and another in Stanislaus county. I can safely predict that wherever 1 00 
acres or more of Kadotas are in bearing another cannery will be established 
or, as in Porterville, a branch unit will be started by some firm operating 
elsewhere. 

In glass jars so wonderfully attractive is the fruit that it commands imme- 
diate sale, almost regardless of price, and when eaten so exceptionally delicious 
the flavor as to mortgage a consumer's pocketbook for life. 

Canning 

The canning of fresh figs deserves a chapter all to itself; space does not 
permit me to so digress, however. 

The marketing of ripe figs in glass and tin as preserved, jammed, spiced, 
marmalade, candy, paste, cake filler, and other uses has been practiced for 
some years by canners in Texas and Louisiana, where the drying of figs was 
impractical, due to climatic conditions. They there used a fig known as Mag- 




K:i<l<it:i l"i;i. I ' j >«';irN after pisiiitiiiu. ll«'in il: 
feet eireiiiufereiiee of besiriiiB stii-fnee. 



18 THE KADOTA FIG 



nolia, which when compared with a Kadota is a vastly inferior product. Yet a 
ready sale and increasing demand has always consumed their production. 

Immediately canning of the Kadota began the trade clamored for that 
beautiful and most truly delicious article and today, only three years since 
the lir:t Kadota was preserved in glass, a trade has become e:tabli-hed that 
absorbs immediately every jar processed and orders placed for ten times the 
capacity of orchard supplies. We are totally unable to supply the demand at 
present of even the few canners preserving our products. 

While the Eastern markets pay splendid prices for our fresh Kadotas, yet 
so insistent is the demand from preserving plants that this past season (1919) I 
never shipped even one box East. Canners got them all ; canners take all 
sizes and utilize every pound produced, firm or over-ripe, and every evening the 
day's pick is delivered to the preserving plant in perfect condition, there placed 
in lars ranging in size from 4 figs as individual service jars, to 1 2 figs for 
family use, and larger containers of tin for jams and fillers. 

With a market embracing the whole United States and Canada, which is a 
great consumer of sweets, and also Europe, where canning of figs is not prac- 
ticed extensively, the future outlet at fancy prices for our Kadota fig crops is 
assured. 

Overproduction is an impossibilty 

Peaches are raised and canned in every state in the Union and part of 
Canada. There is no lack of a market at good prices to the grower of peach^:s. 
Apples, the same, plums also, all fruits the same. Vegetables are grown and 
canned everywhere. The demand increases, more canneries are being built 
in every state. Overproduction seems improbable. City populations are grow- 
ing rapidly. Country production areas, slowly. Demand seems to be out- 
running production of the Nation. Better financial conditions call for better 
food products. Consumption only awaits production. 

Therefore with only a limited area in California growing the most de- 
licious of all fruits the world produces, delivering to consumer in a package 
sanitary and lasting, a delight to eye and palate, we in confidence may plant 
to our greatest extent this superb fruit, fearing no competition, fearing no crop 
failure, knowing that from planting the tree until crop harvesting we wait but 
three short years; our golden future is certainly spanned by a rainbow of 
splendid promise. 

Prices, Fresh and Dry 

I planted my orchard in 1913. In 1915 I packed my ripe figs in one- 
layer boxes and shipped to Los Angeles and San Francisco. I soon found 
the California consumers of fresh figs had been soured on white figs. They 
perhaps had gotten too often Adriatics and Smyrnas that were sour or con- 
tained mold and they were skeptical regarding the Kadota, which was new to 
them. They demanded the black or blue fig long known to them; generally 
the Mission variety. 

I received from 8 to 1 2 cents per pound, but transportation, truckage and 
commission ate up my profits. As my trees were young, the fruit was small, 
they dried poorly and we had not discovered the canning demand at that time. 



THE KADOTA FIG 19 



So the next season, 1916, in August, I tried the Eastern shipment plan; it 
worked beautifully and I received $2.30 per box for my first consignment; 
that was an 8-pound box (net). My prices ranged from $1.75 to $2.50 per 
box that season and but few were lost. 

My dried figs that season sold at the regular Adriatic prices then prevail- 
ing. 

In 191 7, I was shipping East also, but the Pacific Coast Syrup Company 
of San Francisco had contracted to take all my smaller figs at 6'/ 2 cents f. o. b. 
and furnished boxes and transportation. 

In 1918, we again contracted with the canners, with prices on the June 
crop at 6'/2 for fifm fi"uit ^^^ "^ ^^^^^ ^o*" seconds, and the crops following 
July 1st brought 8 cents per pound, or $160.00 per ton. 

Our 1919 contracts called for 8 cents per pound for all figs, big and little, 
up to and including July 1 st, and all figs delivered thereafter bringing 9 cents 
per pound, which means almost one cent per fig, or $180.00 per ton for our 
fresh fruit. Opening prices, 1 920, are 1 cents for perfect fruit. 

Because of the lack of tonnage of dry Kadotas, no special featuring of 
them has been possible, to command a special price, because of the fact that 
they never sour, split or mold; hence we receive regular Adriatic prices for 
such tonnage as we offer for sale. 

Drying 

The Kadota fig will dry and fall from the tree exactly as do any of the 
other varieties. They are not a good dried article until the tree is 4 or 5 years 
of age, and full sugar, flavor and sizes are attained by the fruit. 

The August and September crop may be caprified exactly as is the 
Smyrna, and a heavier, sweeter, full-meated fig, filled with big, plump, fertile 
seeds, is the result. 

A caprified Kadota when ripening fails to take on the beautiful golden 
color of the uncaprified fruit and remains until drying a decided green shade, 
which fades away as drying progresses, leaving a very white, attractive and 
delicious dried fig. 

The University of California has furnished us with an analysis of our 
caprified product and we have been enabled to compare these results with 
the analysis of imported Smyrnas, finding from 3 to 1 2 per cent more sugar 
in the California raised Kadota than is found in the imported Smyrna. 

If Kadotas chance to be raised in remote locations and drying is desired 
instead of fresh-shipping, the grower has it coming and going over planters 
growing either Adriatic or Smyrnas, inasmuch as he raises a June crop which 
he may dry and which the other white varieties do not produce, and while he 
cannot caprify that crop, he may fertilize the August and September crops 
and thereafter until November 15 continue to gather and dry additional 
tonnage from his Kadotas at a season when the Smyrna and Adriatic have 
ceaed to produce. 

In drying our figs by the present time-worn methods, we all over-dry 
them, making tough, leathery fruit, neither attractive nor palatable, as com- 
pared to what we could produce if we were to advance our methods in fig 
production, as we have in all other commodities. I long for the day to come 
when the dry-fig producers will achieve those commendable results. 



20 



THE KADOTA FIG 



Even now we may finish drying our fruit in the shade, tray on tray or in 
sheds, and by dipping our dried fruit in a 2 or 2Yl' '^( salt solution and then 
packing them temporarily in receptacles free from the infestation of the fig 
pests, we will derive great good. Deliver early to the packers that they may 
properly process and carton the fruit. For home supplies or for gifts to distant 
friends, dip dry figs in boiling salt water (2 oz. salt to one gallon of water) 
and immediately, while heated through and through and still dripping, place r'n 
tins, press down lid, and seal with wax and the fruit will remain sterilized, 
moist and perfect for years. Even card-board, wax-dipped, or empty coffee tins 
are very good. 

Under the above caption I ask my readers to permit me a little digression. 
From earliest childhood I have loved the fig, and worshiped the spreading fig 
tree. Location and climatic conditions in my boyhood home made impossible 
the successful growing of the commercial fig, yet distance did not discourage 
my intimacy with the occasional fig tree planted by the early Spanish settlers 
in my California birthplace. I knew every tree, its actions and production 
for 20 miles on every side. Their lack of care and protection hurt me as the 
suifering of a little child. The balsam-like odors of the old fashioned tree, 
that filled the soft and balmy summer nights, was rarest perfume to me, and 
no fruit that grows is half so delicate and delicious to my man-grown fancy 
as was the ofttimes stolen fruit of those lonesome and neglected fig groups. 
In rocky canyon beside the clear cold springs, or in valleys, near adobe-walled 
home of Spaniard or Forty-niner, then stood and yet stand today these monu- 
ments to our early settlers. Ever they bear and ever as sweet as then. With 
sadness and sorrow have I sat my little mustang pony under the shadows of 




■ii.v .\»':ir <il) 



•u-k«'r ;t:i< lioriiiu' Irt'.sli Iriiit 



THE KADOTA FIG 21 



the first California Smyrna figs grown and opened with jack-knife fig after 
fig, and meditated why it was not matured. No one could help me guess, 
and no wasp was there; the sweet old Mission was ever true and kind to boy- 
hood appetite. The splitting and souring of Adriatic added only another 
burden then to my struggling imagination, why such delicious products of 
earth were not perfect. 

As a boy with pockets ever stocked with sun-dried figs, when chance or 
season permitted, I have come down the years into the fig game proper, and 
still the longing for a better product holds upper sway in my thoughts. Then 
as now, I longed for a better fruit. 

The sun-dried fig must go its way. There are better and surer methods 
yet to be practiced. Only by organization and co-operation will this desired 
goal be reached. 

Little IS it realized by the fig men of California that in their very midst 
is that force of mind and money working day and night that will raise to the 
very forefront the fig industry of Central California and place it in years to 
come second to none in the wondrous products of our soil and climate. That 
force of brains, genius and irresistible progress is now seen but not recognized 
in the Forkner Fig Gardens Company, who slowly passed the silver wand, 
tipped with the golden eagle, over the desert acres north of the city of Fresno, 
and baby fig orchards spring into the warming sunshine, and far as eye can 
reach still other gardens come. With the maturing of these wondrous acres 
will come into existence through the ability, brains and money of those gifted 
men, a knowledge of figs not dreamed before, and by them methods will be 
employed that will shame our best products of today and make them seem 
crude indeed. 

Accumulated by that body of men is knowledge of the past, all the 
wisdom of the present, aspirations for the future and betterment of this age- 
old but neglected industry, and sure as the passing of the seasons all fig 
growers will benefit from the studies and experiments of those men. Quality 
will follow production, and perfection will be their goal, that the products 
of these fig gardens when offered to the consuming public be not alone a 
pleasure and a joy but a combination of food and confection. The perfection 
in handling figs which these men will achieve will practically eliminate 
European competition, but with the passing of that menace must also pass 
our present crude and unsatisfactory practices. 

The dry fig of the future will be hand-picked from low-crowned 
modern-grown orchards, the full-sugared jelly-ripe fruit, blanched and made 
tender by super-heated steam, dehydrated by methods other than sun-heat; 
and the finished product semi-transparent, retaining full weight, flavor and 
delicacy, will be offered to the ever-increasing trade, in tasty, attractive forms, 
and for distant consumption, packed in glass and tin, sterilized and sealed, 
where deterioration cannot occur and time will occasion no loss. Such a 
product cannot be produced in California in quantity to meet demand, and 
over-production will be the mirage that fades into thin air. 

Improved methods in production of all commodities have always proven 
cheaper than the crude methods employed by the pioneer in any project, and 
the betterment of the fig product will be no exception. 



22 THE KADOTA FIG 



The saving in weight by hand-picking ehminating other losses now sus- 
tained, will meet additional cost of preparation, and improvement of finished 
product will naturally bring sufficiently better prices to meet all expenses, 
and with organization will follow the elimination of one or more middlemen 
between producer and consumer, and lessened cost to consumer will be at- 
tended with increased consumption. The world must look to California 
alone for this betterment in figs, and from the Forkner gardens may we expect 
these changes to be inaugurated, where knowledge, modern methods, or- 
ganization and money are incorporated and aided by science and skill. 

Returns per acre to date 

As my orchard was planted in March, 1913, it is but six and a hall 
years of age at the present writing. It is on heavy land and has had good 
care. As I chanced to be a pioneer in the growing of this fig, I could obtain 
no advice on its habits and no man could aid me. Methods formerly used 
were considered practical and proper, and while debating planting methods 
one man of experience said: "Oh, a fig is a fig; they're all alike." 

Right there my mistakes and troubles started and I am paying the bills 
now and will for years to come pay for my ignorance in my older orchard. 
Fortunately I can save to all others now labor, y^ears and monev. What I 
have written and spoken in the past few years has been the results obtained 
from actual experience, some of it sad and very expensive. 

As a result of my mistakes the financial returns herewith presented from 
my orchard are necessarily less than I could expect to obtain now under 
similar conditions, now that our knowledge of this fig has vastly broadened. 
I planted my orchard 36 x 36 — or 34 trees per acre instead of 25 x 25 or 
69 trees per acre. In 1915 I grossed about $20 per acre or 60 cents per 
tree. In 1916 I "netted" $74.00 per acre or about $2.00 per tree. In 
1917 I grossed $125.00 per acre or $3.70 per tree, and it rained for 
several weeks, making picking in my adobe land impossible. Losses were 
considerable. 

In 1918 I grossed $198.00 per acre of 2754 pounds, or 
$5.82 per tree of 81 pounds, and hot winds in June caused a loss, and the 
continued rains in the autumn made picking impossible for over three weeks. 
Our 1919 crop in June netted 2125 pounds per acre or $1 70.00, which was 
$5.00 per tree. Three blazing hot weeks in July with temperature ranging 
from 100° to 118° in the shade set a new heat record for our section and all 
figs and fruits suffered. Our season's record was cut down 50', earlier esti- 
mates and our orchard grossed us $13.10 per tree. Earlier estimates were 
$25.00 per tree. 

The above prices were obtained while we were experimenting in growing, 
pruning and marketing. All that is now saved the grower of the future, and 
had our orchard been planted at the now approved distances of 25 x 25 or 
69 trees per acre, even under the handicaps we were compelled to overcome 
the results should have stood something like this:. 

Third summer, $41.40 per acre. 

Fourth summer, $138.00 per acre. 

Fifth summer, $255.00 per acre. 



THE KADOTA FIG 



23 



Sixth summer, $401.58 per acre. 
Seventh summer, $903.90 per acre. 

To the fig grower of other varieties the-e figures may seem absurd, but 
he must remember we are deahng with something newer, and marketed in a 
different manner than anything of which we have ever had knowledge in 
the past. 




!<>ix year olrf Ksidota. Correctly primed in first three years. 



The following letter speaks for itself. It reads in part as follows: 

1961 Wilcox Ave., Hollywood, CaHf., October 15, 1917. 
Mr. W. Sam Clark, Sultana, Calif. 

Dear Sir: — I have read and re-read your article in the proceeding of 
the Fig Institute of January, 1917. I have a small orchard of Kadota Pigs, 
which I planted twelve years ago, having secured my rootings from Mr. 
Stephen H. Taft as you did. I knew when you secured your rootings, some 
years ago. I am experimenting with intensive cultural methods with this 
fjg ■¥ * ^ When my trees were six years old, I sold my entire crop 
green to Hotel Alexandria for twenty cents per pound. In September of 
that year I sold $100.50 green figs from my six trees. '^ ^ ^ By my 
methods of culture many of my figs attain a size of one-fourth to one-third 
and some almost one-half pound EACH. ^ 'f ^ One year I sold my 



24 THE KADOTA FIG 



entire crop to Hotel Angelus at fifteen to twenty-five cents per pound, selling 
700 pounds from my six trees, averaging twenty cents per pound season 
average (average $23.20 per tree). 

Other seasons have sold entire crop in bulk off the trees to Lankershim, 
Van Nuys and Beverly Hills Hotels at a flat rate of twelve and a half cents 
straight. * ^ ^ By intensive culture my figs on the extreme six-inch tip 
of the limbs attain immense size and crowd one another off, there being ten 
to fifteen figs clustering on extreme tip of the limb. ^ * v J prune my 
trees back very severely to permit of green picking, as I don't like to climb 
to the clouds to gather my figs. * ^ ^ J have a few rootings for sale, 
my price, like Mr. Taft's, being fifty to seventy-five cents, and for especially 
fine trees I have received as high as $2.00 each. 

Respectfully, 

John H. Oliver. 

The Prospects of the Kadota Fig 

W. Sam Clark 
(Paper at Fig Institute, 1919) 

By the prospect of any undertaking we mean, in reality, the possibilities 
which that undertaking holds in store for its promoters. To gain a view in 
the mind's eye of the prospect or possibility of any undertaking we must in a 
great measure be guided by what has transpired in the past, regarding that 
same object, and we say the prospects are either good or poor. 

Regarding the Kadota fig we are compelled, most emphatically, to 
pronounce the prospects good. 

We may say in all truth and sincerity that, judging the future by the 
short past, these prospects exceed all our expectations, and even our fondest 
hopes bid fair to be out-realized. 

In speaking of the Kadota fig I refer only to that fig distributed by the 
late Stephen H. Taft and named by him, to distinguish this strain from sev- 
eral other varieties, now ofttimes being marketed under the popular name of 
Kadota; therefore planters should be absolutely sure of the origin of the 
rootings they set out. 

A few years ago the Kadota was an experiment. Today it is an ac- 
complished fact. It has sprung to the very head of every fig in its class, and 
we might say it is almost in a class by itself; yet in some respects it overlaps 
the granted prerogatives of some of the older varieties. I refer now to its 
caprifying and drying qualities. I will dwell upon these points a little later. 



THE KADOTA FIG 25 



In speaking of the prospects of this fig we must base our statements and 
expectations upon its record in Cahfornia during the last ten years, since it 
was introduced and distributed. 



Advantages 

First of all, we have a fig of wonderful growmg habits ; it outstrips by 
far all others. 

Secondly, we have a fig that bears in its tender infancy. From planting 
to crop gathering is but a very few short years. 

Third, we have a fig which, under proper care and cultivation in the 
San Joaquin Valley, ofttimes attains a size of 3 and 3'/2 inches in diameter, 
while from about Los Angeles even larger sizes are reported. Not all the 
figs on every tree are thus in size, neither are all the figs extremely large on 
any other variety of fig tree. The Kadota in reality has three sizes, and each 
has its particular market. 

Fourth, we have a fruit in demand in many markets. By that I mean 
we have a fruit for canning and preserving in many forms, and a fig for long 
distance shipment to the Atlantic seaboard and to population centers impos- 
sible of fig production. 

Fifth, we have a variety here that bears a tremendous crop four and 
one-half months every summer. The cycle of its ripening period is roughly 
30 days, shading slightly either way according to weather conditions, the 
first cycle being in June, the others August, September, October and Novem- 
ber 15th. 

Sixth, this fig is now succeeding in any soil and under nearly all con- 
ditions in the Valley where any of the older varieties now succeed, and is 
proving as hardy under extreme cold and drouth as any of the others, and it 
leads them all when early rains come. For rains, fog and dampness are no 
disaster to this variety. These conditions simply retard ripening and the crop 
awaits return of normal weather conditions and continues its ripening, until 
the November cold closes the season. 



May be Caprified 

While this fig is primarily a green shipper and a canning and fresh 
eating fig, second to none ever grown, yet this fact remains: So easily are 
they caprified that a grower may fertilize his August crop, gather it as any 
other dried fig crop, and, when the Capri wasp is no longer obtainable, he 
may resume his green shipping for two and one-half months longer. 

As the Kadota fig has never under any circumstances been known to 
sour, split or contain mold of any kind, the dry article is most satisfactory for 
all purpose?, and when caprified and mixed with dried Symrnas experts assure 
me they cannot separate the varieties. 



26 THE KADOTA FIG 

Results of Caprifying 

While on this subject of the dry and caprified Kadota fig, permit me to 
read to you extracts from a communication I received some time since from 
Prof. I. J. Condit of the University of Cahfornia on this subject: 

"Fresh Kadota figs caprified were received from you August 22, 1918. 
I made the following notes on these specimens ; the exterior appearance of the 
two are markedly different. 

"First, the color of the uncaprified Kadota is a light golden-yellow, and 
the surface is somewhat glossy ; the color of the caprified Kadota is green or 
yellowish-green, and the surface is dull. 

"Second, the ribs of the uncaprified fruit are practically absent and un- 
noticeable; in the caprified fruit the ribbed appearance, especially in the 
wilted specimens, being netted and roughened, by the slightly elevated longi- 
tudinal cross-veins. 

"Third, the meat or rind seems to be little affected in thickness or tex- 
ture. Whether the naturally excellent keeping and shipping qualities are im- 
paired by caprification I cannot say. 

"Fourth, the uncaprified Kadota is practically seedless, or the seeds are 
so small and so few in number as to be hardly noticeable. The seeds in the 
caprified Kadota are numerous, fairly large, and, of course, fertile. 

"Fifth, the difference in flavor is distinct, the caprified fruit being 
sweeter and richer. Tests of the sugar content (Balling) were made with 
Prof. Cruess' assistance, with the following results: caprified figs, 35.2 '/i ; 
uncaprified figs, 28.4%. 

"Three figs were weighed, and the fertile seeds in each counted, with 
the following results: 

(1) 25.5 gr 544 fertile seeds 

(2) 31.5 gr 412 fertile seeds 

(3) 30 gr 402 fertile seeds 

Now follows a letter to Prof. Condit from Prof. M. E. Jaffa, dated 

Dec. 15, 1917, regarding "Dried Kadota Figs": 

"Mr. Albro has determined the percentage of sugar and moisture in 
the two samples of Kadota figs, which you left with us, with the following 
results : 

Kadota Figs 

Caprified Uncaprified 

Water 22.57% 25.75% 

Total sugar 75.36 68. 1 6 

Comparison with Foreign Figs 

The above results, as I have presented them to you, are from our 
University professors, upon the Kadota fig both fresh and dry. Now permit 
me to give you for a comparison the analysis of the Smyrna and other Euro- 
pean imported figs dry, as reported by Dr. Gustav Eisen in his volume en- 
titled "The Fig, Its History, Culture and Curing." 



THE KADOTA FIG 27 



On page 285 we find his analysis of California-grown Adriatics as 
5 7% sugar, and that of imported Smyrnas at 62.50'/, ; a second sample of 
Smyrnas he records as having 72.539; sugar. His first analysis of the im- 
ported Smyrna, you will observe, falls short of the Kadota exactly 12.86% 
in sugar, and his second sample is shy 3'/ , in favor of the Kadota. On 
page 287 of this book. Dr. Eisen gives us the analysis of fourteen other 
varieties of dried figs raised in the various fig-growing sections of the world 
and only three of the fourteen exceed in sugar content the Kadota, as pre- 
sented by our University professors. I had no statistics at hand regarding 
the Smyrna fig of California, so could not make a comparison. But, as we 
out-sugar the Smyrna figs of Asia Minor, "we should worry." 

Gathers Golden Crop from Trees in November 

From Fig & Olive Journal 
[November, 1918] 

Having heard much in favor of the Kadota fig and being rather im- 
pressed by the good accounts given by those who were engaged in its culture, 
the publisher of the Journal gave himself a treat by visiting recently the 
Kadota orchard of Mr. W. Sam Clark, near Sultana. 

After seeing what we did on that enjoyable occasion it is in order for 
us to say that our previous ideas regarding the Kadota were far short of 
the realities that faced us when we stood in Mr. Clark's orchard and 
viewed his magnificent trees, loaded with fruit that is hardly to be described 
as being less than the concentrated essence of flavor and sweetness. This, 
mind you, at a time of the year when it is about impossible to secure an 
eatable fresh fig in all the length and breadth of the San Joaquin Valley. 
Truly, the Kadota seems to be a perpetual bearer, for the trees in this 
orchard were full of figs in every stage of development from those just out 
of the bud to fully ripened figs heavy with sugar. Only the coming of frost 
will put an end to the harvesting of the fruit, we are told, and even then the 
trees will carry a crop that, if harvested from the average orchard, would 
mean prosperity for the owner. 

Mr. Clark is busy shipping his present crop of Kadotas to a large 
packing concern m San Francisco, which uses the fruit for preserving, a 
purpose to which the Kadota lends itself with all the success attending the 
famous Magnolia fig of Texas, heretofore the recognized standard of excel- 
lence in this line of fancy products. 

Since early last June Mr. Clark has gathered from his trees, at intervals 
of about thirty-five days, successive crops of high-grade figs that have sold 
at splendid prices. The Kadota bears throughout the season in cycles, Mr. 
Clark explains, and each cycle occupies about thirty-five days. 7 his continues 
until the winter's cold will no longer permit the fruit to mature, and surely 
no one could reasonably ask for a longer season than this. 

From what we have seen of the Kadota fig on the Clark place we are 
convinced of these facts: The trees make a prodigious growth, far out- 
f tripping any other fig we have seen ; they bear exceedingly early, a tree 
eighteen months from the planting bearing in many instances as much as 
thirty to forty pounds of edible figs; the fruit is of good size and literally as 



28 



THE KADOTA FIG 







■H^^^^^lral^^lHill^^^^l^Ltti^^^* 






■>«.& _ 



Pickiugr basket siiiil fresh fruit. Basket 14xl!> inelies by 3% inches rteep. l.ifsht 
!i;'alvanixed iron. E^asily kept olean auci sanitary anil very durable; ^vei^iit 
3^2 pounds; IS pounds fresh fruit. 



THE KADOTA FIG 29 



sweet as sugar; there is no evidence whatever that the Kadota either rplits 
or sours, as do so many other varieties, and finally, it seems to us, the ideal 
green shipper and preserving fig has been discovered in this variety. 

Clark Orchard has Wealth of Kadotas 

From Fig & Olix'e. Iournal 
[/u/p, 1919] 

W. Sam Clark has been more than busy with his Kadota fig crop on 
his place near Sultana, the first crop being a large one and in much demand 
for green shipment. The later crop, now showing in a well-developed stage 
on the trees, promises to be a record-breaker. The trees, though young, none 
of them being more than six years old, are fairly covered with young figs. 
Mr. Clark has been most successful in disposing of his Kadotas for good 
prices to the preserving concerns, as well as finding a remunerative market 
in the larger cities where he has been consigning the fruit intended for fresh 
consumption. After a recent visit to the Clark orchard we would say that, 
under present conditions in the fig business, the owner has the nearest thing 
to a gold mine that we know of. For thrifty growth, healthy appearance 
and yield of fruit the orchard of W. Sam Clark is probably unequaled in 
California. 

Mission on the Borders 

Regardless of what may be grown upon your land, borders should be 
planted to figs; avenues, roads and by-ways should be lined with fig trees, not 
alone from financial views, but to add beauty and attractiveness to your prop- 
erty. 

The tremendous rooting habits of a fig permit it to reach out great dis- 
tances and gather tree and fruit food from the soil otherwise lost to the owner. 

The roads and avenues of California are so numerous and generous in 
width that vast acreages in the aggregate are lost to the state as producing 
agencies unless employed by the use of the fig. Nothing can be more pleasing 
to the eye than an avenue of great spreading fig trees, laden with luscious fruit, 
during the heat of summer. 

No money comes to a land-owner that is as near "velvet" as the returns 
of the fruit from these borders of fig trees. There are many cases that mav 
be cited in the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys where the entire running 
expenses of the enclosed areas are more than balanced by the returns from the 
crop of dry figs gathered from these border plantings. All produced, we may 
assume, from land otherwise lost to the owner. It is strongly advisable in the 
majority of cases that the Mission fig be planted as a border tree. 

This fig requires no caprification, no special care, the fruit in drying falls 
and is cheaply gathered, and invariably finds a ready sale on a market be 
coming greater each season. This fig is rapidly becoming a great favorite, dut» 
to its splendid flavor, and absence of sour and splits, and its uses are more 
varied than any other dried fig of commerce. 

The consuming public throughout the United States and Canada are 
being educated to the uses of this fig and no mistake can be made in planting 
it on borders and ditch banks. 



30 THE KADOTA FIG 



The difficulty of caprifying the Smyrna, when thus planted, and the 
trouble and expense of gathering the Kadota when planted in border form, 
leave us no other choice of varieties that will even remotely produce financial 
returns equal to those obtained in the use of the Mission. 

On every hand we see grand old Mission trees producing great cropi 
year after year, no cultivation or care ever given, little or no irrigation prac- 
ticed, yet with every neglect they never fail in leaf or crop. 

Smyrna 

Next in order in the drying fig from point of income we must place the 
Smyrna of the Lob-Injir variety. Of the white dry figs nothing ever 
has been or probably ever will be produced equal to a perfect Smyrna fig. 
There is not now planted in California sufficient acreage of Smyrnas to proper- 
ly supply the markets of the very near future. The beauty of this fig in its 
various forms of pack; its flavor and general excellence create for it a 
permanent place in the favor of all consumers the world over. 

'Tis hard to conceive an overproduction of this fruit. To the intending 
planter, however, who is not definitely wedded already to this fig of commerce, 
I would suggest that he duly consider his soil, climatic conditions, including 
regular or sporadic breezes in the pollenizing seasons, and supplies of capri figs 
of his own or from other orchards. 

Intelligent and careful consideration of soil for successful propagation of 
the Smyrna fig of a quality to meet importation competition will probably re- 
veal to the investigator that much of the splitting and subsequent losses of this 
fig is due largely to a lack of moisture in the soil at a critical period in its 
growth ; soils whose composition are such as to permit of the evaporation 
of the last irrigation, or moisture supply from other sources permit (when 
unusual periods of heat occur) the evaporation of moisture exactly when most 
needed. 

The leaves of the tree draw heavily upon the stored moisture in the soil 
and it is lost in various ways before the growing and swelling fruit can secure 
sufficient to meet its requirements. Hence a stagnation in growth temporarily 
occurs, the skin of the fruit toughens or hardens, and upon cool weather return- 
ing, or an additional supply of moisture otherwise occurs, a rush of sap to 
the fruit results and the skin of the fruit cannot expand and splitting 
follows, exactly in proportion to the duration of the privation the fruit pre- 
viously sustained. A hot summer following a dry winter gives us our worst 
losses in Smyrnas from splitting, and sudden coolness following intense heat 
produces the same result. 

It is my opinion that the souring of the Smyrna fig may be traceable to 
the same conditions as the splitting. 

It is my belief based on observation only, that there is a critical period 
in the development of this fig, when, if a sudden flow of sap be diverted from 
the tree and leaf "to the fruit," by coolness of the days and nights, and the 
evaporation just preceding the coolness is stopped, the excess sap permit- 
ted to go to the fruit cannot in so short a time become converted into sugar, and 
while that slow process is taking place fermentation sets in and vinegar forms 
and we have our sours. 



THE KADOTA FIG 31 



I have no way of proving my assertions in this matter and my opinions 
may find opposition in the investigations of others. However, I have observed 
that water shghtly sweetened will sour quickly and water heavily impregnated 
with sugar is slow to sour, and that figs that form and ripen before a hot spell 
seldom sour and split, and that immediately upon the return of cool weather 
following the hot spell, splitting and souring immediately occur. 

Soil very retentive of moisture regardless of Tveather conditions in my 
opinion will produce figs less likely to sour and split. Hence soil composition 
enters into the game very prominently. 

A Smyrna fig grower, having secured capri figs ready to liberate wasps 
in plenty, with necessary pollen, and finds his Smyrna figs are also in a re- 
ceptive condition, dreads to see a wind storm, regular or sporadic, come 
along, as his little benefactors are blown, scattered and lost, and eventually 
he may not fertilize over 80 per cent of the figs set upon his trees. 

Smyrna figs on borders are harder to pollenize than a block of trees set 
in rectangular form, as above named conditions make it difficult to retain the 
wasps. In my opinion more cash returns will always be obtained from border 
planting if the Mission fig be planted instead of the Smyrna. 

Adriatic 

Planting of Adriatics in the past has been a profitable procedure, but 
no consideration was given the soil for this variety, consequently we find it 
growing everywhere, and in the majority of cases the fruit sours, splits, mold.s, 
and has brought the name of California dry figs into disrepute in Eastern 
markets where it is sold in competition with the imported Smyrna. 

The Pure Food Law has been invoked in the season past and a serious 
loss to growers was averted only by the leniency with which the law was 
applied. In the seasons to come no such leniency may be expected and the 
financial returns to growers of Adriatics will be seriously affected. 

Intending planters of this variety should determine in advance that they 
have the soil wherein this fig will mature and be a perfect fruit ; so few and 
far between are these areas that we may almost class the Adriatic as a forbid- 
den variety. 

Land is too valuable and time too precious and other varieties too plentiiul 
to take a chance in planting a variety which offers so little for the future. 
Aside from the soil, a cool damp night, a fog or ram plays the mischief with a 
crop of Adriatics. The salvation of the older Adriatic orchards will probably 
be found in caprifying the fruit, gathering it fresh as is done with Mission and 
Kadotas, and employing dehydration methods to produce a better dried fig. A 
very creditable article may thus be obtained and confiscation under the Pure 
Food Law be averted. 

The older methods employed in the past must surely be abandoned. 
Large quantities of Adriatics will in the future be consumed in canning and 
preserving plants and factories, and pruning to permit fresh picking must be 
practiced. 



32 



THE KADOTA FIG 



1 


"'^^mf '^^^P^ -'lirafcMftf ^^^Bf ...^A 
|{|SM|^aH^I^^4|i(H^B^cS ) 


rf 

/ 


■ 


f' 0m^m/l^^^^^^ 




Hb?/'' 




ih.^ 



THE KADQTA FIG 33 



Description of Kadota Fruit 

The fruit of the Kadota fig is rather of the oblong type, yet specimens 
very flat often occur. The color is golden yellow, tinting to green, and 
reaches its perfection in color and flavor in August and September of each 
year. Earlier and later fruit due to climatic conditions shade less to golden. 
The texture of the skin is very ^'clastic,'' which virtue added to the solid for- 
mation of the interior of the fruit makes possible the fresh fig being shipped in 
refrigerator cars to Eastern seaboard cities and also Eastern Canadian destina- 
tions. 

On young trees, the second summer after planting, a crop of figs may 
be gathered small in sizes and lacking in flavor, but very sweet. 

The absence of seeds, or rather the infinitely small size of the seed found 
in a Kadota fig, is the secret of this fig's long distance shipping. The fruit is 
not broken in transit by the incessant jar of a car, as the seeds having no weight 
do not break down the tissues and cause the fruit on arrival at destinations to 
be classed as a "leaker," as is the usual case with other varieties when their 
long distance shipment is attempted. 

In the Eastern shipment of the Kadota we have secured fancy prices even 
though the figs have been 1 7 days in transit. That is an exceptional case, 
however, as 1 to 14 days is usually the limit. The circulation of air in a 
car containing figs is an absolute essential, and if any delay in transit is occa- 
sioned, the air becoming stagnant, molding of the fruit will invariably follow. 

As I have said before, young trees bear a crop of small-sized, well-col- 
ored figs, yet as the trees increase with age the size of the fruit also increases 
until the fifth or sixth year, at which age the maximum sizes seem to have 
been attained, and perfection of the fruit in color and flavor has been secured. 

With the age of tree and size of the fruit comes also the sealing of the 
fig at the blossom end. A drop of clear, slightly sweetened wax will then fill 
the eye of the fig, the wax hardening and thus absolutely sealing the fig against 
the intrusion of insect and moisture, insuring the consumer of this fig, either 
fresh or dry, a perfect product, which may be eaten out of hand or in cooked 
forms, there being removed the fear that something undesirable may be con- 
sumed with the fig. 

There is another point regarding this fig which I wish to emphasize right 
here. No Kadota fig up to the present time has ever been known to sour, split, 
or contain black mold. Hence, a consumer need never fear of biting into a 
big luscious fig and find the interior filled with a googling mass of vinegar or 
a bunch of black mold, and a grower can safely plant and grow this fruit 
without the haunting fear that his land or some portion of it will cause his 
future crops to be unmarketable, or at least cause him a partial loss of profits. 
He also IS in a great measure insured against adverse weather conditions, as 
rain, fog, or dew have but little bearing on the harvesting of the crop. Rain 
will delay the ripening and perhaps delay the picking of a few figs at that time 
ready for market, and the return of favorable weather means a resumption of 
gathering and marketing of the fruit. 

Young trees produce small fruit, of a size and color greatly desired by 
canners and preservers, as well as confectioners for glace and candy pur- 



34 



THE KADOTA FIG 




THE KADOTA FIG 35 



poses. As the orchard increases in age, an increase in size of fruit occurs, until 
the fifth and sixth summers find figs of the genuine Kadota in size equal to the 
largest of figs grown. Figs of 3 inches to 3'/4 inches in diameter occur and 
extreme sizes weigh 3 to the pound, and in my own orchard four and five 
figs to the pound are not infrequent in June and early August crops. Later in 
the season slightly smaller sizes occur until October, when, in favorable 
seasons, large figs again develop. However, only about \0% of any crop is 
extreme in size, while perhaps 60' i is medium and 30' , small in sizes. Each 
size has a special market and all are in growing demand. 

A genuine Kadota fig that is uncaprified is of a golden yellow coloi, 
shiny as though varnished, solid in fruit and very sweet and of pleasing flavor 
differing from that of any other variety. 

The skm does not prick or burn the lips, and is very pleasing in taste, 
making it unnecessary to remove the skin for eating out of hand or serving 
on the table, with cream and sugar, or crushing to serve with ice cream. 

The seeds being infinitely small are not detected while being eaten and 
that factor adds to the joy of eating this fig by people who have a plate or 
whose teeth are otherwise troublesome. The fig being solid within is conse- 
quently a heavy fruit, hence the returns from a tree loaded with fruit is greater 
than would be suspected. 

Climatic conditions cause a variation in this fig not observable in others. 
Coastal regions produce no June crop and the size of the fruit m August is 
greater than the interior valleys produce. The color is likewise different. Less 
of the golden color is found, but more shades of green occur. Imperial Valley 
grows a smaller fruit than any other section of which I have knowledge; the 
color is golden, however. The moisture content is less and the drying fruit 
is hard and unsatisfactory. The San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys will 
eventually produce the choicest of this delicacy. 

The caprified Kadota is vastly different from the uncaprified, and is 
green in color when ripened, the interior being a deep shade of red, the seeds 
large and heavy, the sugar content increased, and general appearance radically 
differing from the uncaprified. 

Caprification does not cause an increase in size of fruit: however, in- 
crease in weight being noticeable, both fresh and dry. The fruit of the June 
crop is found on the tips of the growth of the preceding season and from four 
to ten figs will be clustered on the terminal of a limb, and as the sizes increase 
they press into one another, making a great cluster of golden colored fruit, very 
beautiful and spectacular. 

The crops in following months are on tips of new growth and scattered 
along down the branch, a fig invariably occurring at the axel of each leaf 
which grows as the limbs extend in length. Consequently every new leaf 
harbors a fig and a continuous crop occurs throughout the ripening season. 

Description of Tree and Habits 

The Kadota tree in leaf and form resenribles in many respect three other 
varieties of figs long grown in California and elsewhere, and this resemblance 
has occasioned a sad mixture in orchards desired by growers to be true Kadota. 

The tree is an upright grower of wonderous thrift and vigor, and unless 
intelligently pruned from its very infancy will fail to make the desired shaped 



36 THE KADOTA FIG 



tree and produce the maximum crop of which it is capable. Its vitaHty and 
tenacity almost invariably produce a 100% stand wherever the rootings are 
planted. So sure is its growth that in my nursery business I invariably guar- 
antee to replace all stock which fails to grow, and return all money paid for 
such rootings regardless of soil conditions if the planting occurs before March 
15th. Strong alkali land is the exception to my guarantee, although we have 
thriving Kadota orchards in land considered alkaline. 

The leaves on the tree differ vastly in form one from another. Some 
are five-lobed, some only three, and again no lobes at all appear, being a very 
large oval-shaped leaf, some being of enormous size in thrifty trees. 

This fig has proven to be as frost resistant as any other grown in Cali- 
fornia, and even more so than the more tender varieties — young Mission, for 
instance. Excessive frosts have frozen Kadota orchards to the ground, yet 
they come up again. In my own case, on one plot of eight acres in the spring 
of 1917, I found not a sign of life on any tree above the ground, yet not a 
single tree had to be replaced, as 100'/^ came from the roots and is now as 
splendid an orchard as can be found in the State. 

How to Plant 

In preparing your land for planting you will find this system, as I have, 
in many respects superior to any of the many other systems now in use. By 
this system you may level in one section of your field, blast or plant in any 
ether, and no operation will interfere with any of the others simultaneously 
performed. 

The correct tree location may instantly be determined regardless of what 
section of the field you may be standing in at the time. To use this system, 
determine your tree distances with wire or tape, either on your own borders 
or just outside your own property or area to be planted. Place whitewashed 
lath or 4 ft. stakes at proper distances entirely around future orchard loca- 
tion outside of planting area. Next, quarter your area with a similar row of 
stakes, NOT where trees are to be planted, but somewhere between rows. 

Now step into any quarter of your location, the northwest for instance. 
Use your shovel-handle to help you line up the stakes numbered in this dia- 
gram for demonstration purposes, looking east, 24 and 1 3. Then looking 
south, line up 35 and Eye, (I) and you have W as correct location for that 
particular tree. 

Next, go into the southeast quarter, look north and line up 38 and E, 
and looking west you get 33 and 1 1 in line, and the exact position for that 
tree is accurately determined, marked Z. 

Any other tree location in the entire orchard may as readily and with 
absolute accuracy be found. 

You may be planting, blasting, scraping or plowing in any of the four 
quarters at the same time and no operation need interfere with any other. 
Leave the entire staking system in place until the last tree is planted. 

If a stake becomes knocked down it may accurately be replaced, as 
you have two other stakes to realign it with in replacing. 

By this system much worry and annoyance may be avoided, as no little 
stakes are used and no planting board, and your orchard will always be in 
perfect alignment, even though your land may be rough, rolling or on a 
hillside. 



THE KADOTA FIG 57 



Clark Method of Laying off Tract for Planting. 

North 

>^ 

A B C D E F G 




38 



THE KADOTA FIG 




<> *'%. 



KAUOTA FIGS 
jV'olice size of silver dollar sis ooiitrastert ^vltli size of fi^s 
S'olden yello^v ami fflossy as thoiiK'h variiishert. 



The fruit is a 



THE KADOTA FIG 



Frozen Nursery Stock 

As I said in another portion of this book, the planter would do well to 
know the habits of his nurseryman. But very few of the average nurserymen 
know as much about fig nursery stock as they do of other varieties. They do 
not, as a rule, appreciate the extreme delicacy of the roots of the baby hg 
trees they are selling. A breath of hot or dry air will injure them, and the 
most extreme care should be exercised at all times in their handling. Exposed 
to the sun, they are injured or killed. Exposed to frost, the same results occur. 

Frost will injure a nursery-bed, and the trees, large and small, may be 
so chilled, if not actually frozen, as to be almost useless. A frozen rooting 
will show the top black, and, at times, bent over. At only a short space at 
the top may this be noticeable, and while the buds are bright and green in 
appearance all down the tree, yet it may be frozen to the roots. 

Let the planter take his knife, and with the small blade cut into and 
upward deeply m the bark of the stick. Now press the portion so cut DOWN 
and back into place. If milk issues from the wound, that part of the stick ou 
down to the roots is uninjured. If nothing issues from the wound, or only a 
little watery substance, you may rest assured that from the incision upward to 
the top, the tree is frozen. The tree may be frozen only a portion of its 
length, and by so prospecting downward you may determine exactly the 
point where the tree should be cut off and waxed over. 

In the case of the Kadota, it should be cut to within 1 or 12 inches 
from the ground when planted, and if frosted the frozen part is thus cut away. 
In any event, the stick should be cut on down until the milk will flow freely, 
even though it should be necessary to cut it off level with the ground, in which 
event the tree will branch AT the ground instead of a few inches farther up. 
Either method is good, as the results desired may thus be obtained, namely, a 
low, spreading tree, easily picked without the use of ladders. 

Here is something to remember: When a tree is growing the sap flows 
upward from roots to leaf and branch. When the same tree is dormant the 
roots are sustained by a DOWNWARD trend of the sap in the tree. The 
more the roots draw on the tree the more HARDENED and DORMANT 
it becomes. Nursery stock in autumn, not exposed to very severe frosts, slowly 
becomes dormant and later in the season may withstand a severe freeze without 
injury. However, if the frosting takes place early in the autumn, the tree is 
caught full of sap and the frozen portion sours and generates a poison, which 
is slowly drawn down into the roots, causing even the unfrozen part of the tree 
to die, and in the majority of cases so infecting the roots that they in turn are 
killed. 

However, in most cases if too long a time does not elapse from freezing 
to cutting away the frosted portion, the tree may prove as good as ?iny. If 
planted and left uncut and unwaxed, the loss is almost certain. My experi- 
ence has been that if the frozen tree is in orchard form and frosted portions 
cut away and roots never removed from the ground, it will nearly always 
come again. Furthermore, the Kadota has proven far more sturdy under 
the freezing and cutting back than any of the other figs I have ever handled 
They seem to have more vitality under such abuse and a satisfactory stand 
may be secured from stock frosted, and cut back, if planted early in the 
season. 



40 



THE KADOTA FIG 



My nurseries this season, 1919, were caught in heavy frosts very early in 
the Autumn and my losses were extremely heavy. Great disappointment will 
come to my customers, who have ordered stock and have been assured my 
nurseries would supply them, only at the last moment to find my frozen stock 
useless, and their plans ruined for this season. 

While my losses are heavy, I fully appreciate that the growers' losses are 
heavier still. I am apportioning to those ordering very early, and the year 
before, all I have in my nurseries which stand a chance at all, and here I 
agam assure my customers that everv rootmg I supply to them is supposed to 
groTV. If it is planted before March 15, and it fails to grow, next season I 
will supply another tree of the same price, free, and will refund the original 
price paid for the defunct rooting. 

I am in the nursery business to STAY and a satisfied customer is my 
best advertiser. 




THE KADOTA FIG 41 



Fig Pointers in General 



Fig rootings are more delicate than any other deciduous tree of which 
I have any knowledge. Rootlets exposed to drying winds or sun, even for 
a short time, will die. 

A frozen nursery fig tree should be cut back severely below the freeze 
and waxed if possible. The frozen sap is poison and is drawn down into 
the roots and the entire system is impregnated and plant will often die. 

A "grojping" fig tree carries sap from roots to branches. When dor- 
mant sap flows from branches to roots. 



Spotted fig orchards are often occasioned by failure of planter to cut 
back the newly planted tree to balance lacerated and reduced root-system; 
it's hard for 30', root system to support 100', top growth. 



Roots supporting life of fig tree go downward to great depth; almost 
invisible hair-like fruit feeders grow near surface of ground in first moisture 
and are easily plowed up and destroyed, reducing season's crop. 



Mission and Adriatic figs are both improved by the fig wasp; the 
Adriatic in more pronounced manner. 

Cool nights improve the size of Kadota figs. Hot days improve color. 



A fi^ tree will grow and bear heavy crops beside a running stream or 
near a spring; it will die young in land holding stagnant water. 

It is not advisable to use manure or other fertilizer around a young fig 
tree unless a vast amount of water is available at all seasons. 

Lime in soil is an absolute essential for the production of fat meat]) figs. 



Whitewash on a young fig tree is a stimulant as well as a protector 
against sunburn and rabbits. 



Figs planted in sandy land are more susceptible to the nematode worm 
than those grown on more heavy land. 



Soil that runs together and bakes hard is usually safe from nematode. 
Tomato vines are the natural host for this pest. Keep them away from a fig. 



Grafting over a fig to a more desirable variety is good. A bud-gratt 
makes the best union. Less apt to break. 



42 THE KADOTA FIG 



Alfalfa grown between the rows of young figs is bad business. Too 
many gophers; grow corn, beans or something else first few years. 



Smyrna figs dry away three to one. Kadota caprified, two to one, un- 
caprified 2Yl to 1 . 



A very superior dried fig is obtained by dipping fresh figs m boihng 
water two minutes, then in boiling syrup (2 pounds sugar to gallon of water), 
dry on trays four days; product is very tender and clear. 

Dip dry figs in boiling brine (2 oz. salt to gallon of water) two minutes, 
place immediately in tins, lid and seal. Will keep indefinitely. 

Adriatic figs grown in heavy land seem to sour every year. Picking 
fresh and dehydrating or canning will solve the difficulty and save pure food 
confiscation. 



The Kadota fig will be the agent for revolutionizing the growing, hand- 
ling and marketing of California figs. It ushers in new systems and new 
ideas. It is truly a California product. 



A Canner's Opinion of the Kadota 

San Francisco, California, November 1 1 th, 1919. 
Mr. W. Sam Clark 
Sultana, California 
Dear Sir: — 

For the past several years we have been using fresh Kadota and White 
Endich figs for preserving purposes. Some people claim that these two figs 
are identical and that the difference noted is due to the different localities in 
which they are grown. But we think that the Kadota is an improved strain 
of the White Endich and have noted these differences: 

Our White Endich growers seem to have but one commercial crop. 
This comes about July I 5th and ends in late August. Our Kadota growers 
have a crop of considerable size in June. They then ship again in August 
and from then on quite continually, the weather permitting, into October and 
even November. Our receipts of White Endich have always been small or 
medium in size; whereas Kadotas run six and even four to the pound. This 
increase in size may be due to the fact that the Kadotas come from young 
orchards and the White Endich from old trees. Placing the Kadota beside 
the White Endich, no difference has been noticed. But when boxes of one 
variety are compared with those of the other, we have noticed that the 
Kadotas appear more golden yellow and richer looking than the White 
Endich. 

Both are good preserving figs but we prefer the Kadota. 
Respectfully yours, 

PACIFIC COAST SYRUP CO. 
By H. L. Kimball, Superintendent. 



THE KADOTA FIG 



45 



The Fig Tree 

BY 
J. C. FORKNER 



I am the Fig Tree 

I was born in the Garden of Eden 

I furnished both food and clothing 

For Adam and Eve 

For Six rhousand years 

I have been a comfort and a solace 

To man 

During all these thousands of years 

While man was evolving 

I clung close to the shores of the Med- 
iterranean 

My birthplace 

Man found many lands 

Many climes where he could prosper 

I found none 

'Till about 1 50 years ago 

Junipero Serra, the Franciscan Father 

Planted me in California 

When my roots went down into that 
blessed earth 

I then realized a new home 

And a new destiny 

Was for me 

I sojourned many years 

In the Golden State 

In the Southland, along the coast 

And around the bay 

Giving the best I could 

Where Sun and Soil and Moisture 

But partly met my needs 

I knew 

Somewhere m the State 

Of a Thousand Valleys 

I would find a place 

Where I could do my best 

For you must know 

I am particular 

The winters must not be cold 



I must have no rams fall upon me 

From June 'till October 

The air durmg the same season 

Must be almost bone dry 

The soil must be to my liking 

Plenty of lime and potash 

The drainage must be perfect 

For one hundred days the sun must 
shine 

From a clear sky 

And reach near one hundred degrees 

Of heat each day 

Before I give perfect fruit 

Now you can see why for six thousand 
years 

I clung to the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean 

Few places on the Globe suit my fancy 

One day near seventy-five years ago 

A roving Argonaut planted me 

In the red soil 

On the western slope of the Sierras 

Near where Fresno 

The Garden of the Sun 

Was destined to be 

That day I knew 

I had found the spot 

Where I could do my best 

It has taken all these years 

For Califormans to see 

How perfectly I work 

When my requirements are met 

I am now producing fifteen million 
pounds each year 

In my new home 

There are one hundred million people 

In the dear old U. S. A. 

They can eat my present yearly supply 



44 



THE KADOTA FIG 



On Thanksgiving Day or Christmas 

Day 
Or any day 

And have not near enough 
I call upon you, my friends 
Plant me 

Plant me by the thousands 
I will bring a blessing to you 
And to all mankind 
Do not be afraid of too many figs 
Such a thing cannot be 
In the J. C. Forkner Fig Gardens 
There will be ten thousand acres of me 
This is a bagatelle 
To the increasing millions who must 

eat 
There could be dozens of J. C. Forkner 

Fig Gardens 
Yet untold numbers in America will 

be born 



Grow to manhood's estate 

And pass away never having tasted 

my fruit 
I know these things to be true 
For I have lived 
Since the beginning of Man 
In all the world today 
There is not produced enough of my 

fruit 
In any one year 
To make two ounces 
For each of the world's inhabitants 
And yet when planted in the proper 

place 
I live forever 
I have no disease 
And for Six Thousand years 
I have not failed to produce a crop 
Each year 




Copyriglit 1920, W. Sam Clark 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




000 917 651 2 



